Wednesday, March 16, 2005

62-minute Grind - Tuesday, March 15 2005

did the Grind today w/ mr. vuong. great weather for it; not too hot, but sunny enough to make it nice. i'd originally just wanted to go for a jog, but got talked into doing the friggin Grind instead. ah well, good exercise. definitely an agonizing ordeal, but definitely doable if u attempt it with the respect it deserves. this aint ur grandma's walk in the park. this was my 3rd time up, last time i did it was back in September. not a bad time i suppose, but the best part was waiting for me when i got home afterwards...
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+8oz of GLORIOUS steak!
(mom says: "now if you could only smile like that more often around the girls..." =P)

ok, now more of...

:the HK Journals:


DAY IX: Hoiping (Back to the Village) - Sunday, February 13

0630: whoa…damn early. Had to wake up to catch train T980 from Zhangmutou station to Guangzhou North station
- sidenote: my hands DO feel nice after that manicure =P
- during the trainride: Aunt asks me about the g/f situation. i saw this coming, so i just casually tell her i'm not dating anyone. then she jokingly goes n tells me to hurry up?! lol, she then goes on & tells me about how she remembers when i was like 6 or 7 & she came to visit; i used to tell her i was gonna get married at 18, then have a bunch of kids by the time i was 20 so that she could babysit them for me. O_o kids say the darndest things...

0845: arrive in Guangzhou. Bigger city than the last one, take MTR to Keng Kou station, then a 1hr bus ride to Hoiping.

- finally get there, drop off bags at some motel-like place (rooms were upstairs), then went to eat lunch at the restaurant downstairs
- met my cousin “Wah” and my 2nd & 3rd Aunt (dad’s younger sisters)whom I’ve never met before. Aunt 2 lives in Hoiping, Aunt 3 lives in Macau.

- after food, took another van to go to the village dad was born in (my ancestral home I guess): Gum Tong Ley

- the house my great grandfather built is still here. Nobody lives here so technically, if I don’t make it over here in Canada I guess I could always just hop on a plane n fly over here; grab a straw hat, become farmer & find myself a wife here in the village & spend the rest of my days in the rice fields? What a concept…


Album: The House Great Grandpa Built


- sadly though, I took so many pics inside the village that my battery died n I didn’t get any more pictures that night. =(
- Aunt invited the whole village for a banquet that night; tons of ppl came to gather at this restaurant in the village, to celebrate the marriage of Aunt's oldest son which took place in December 2004. They'd already had a banquet in HK, so now they were having another one here in China i guess.
- it was cool, food was crazy fresh too. north american ppl would prbbly be a lil uneasy about cleanliness etc...but hey it's the way things are done, n i mean ppl have been living this way for centuries. it's cool. exactly how fresh was the food? well, i was wandering through the kitchen (there's no real door) and i happened to look out a window and see these ladies out back plucking chickens. after a while i went back to my seat, n about 15minutes later i see these chickens being served. yup, fresh.

1200: back, & crash.


End Day IX
(Full Album)


(I didn’t realize this until I was back at the hotel that night, just about to fall asleep on my bed; It’s February the 13th again. Ironic.)

DAY X(Valentine’s Day): From Hoiping to Fang Cun, and Gongbei Port - Monday, February 14

0800: wake up, dim sum. Man, whoever said that Chinese ppl wake up late? Only in North America I guess.
- off to train station again, see off A&W, they go back to HK. Aunt Yu Ming, Aunt 3 & Wah go with me & catch the train back to Guangzhou where we MTR to Fang Cun
- finally have a break, visit a park where we walk around, sit n eat.

- then off to some other park (Sun Yat Sen Memorial)

- after that park, took the MTR to somewhere else, had some McDonald’s again, but not before we hit up one last park:

1820: finally, enough w/ the parks. Caught a bus to Gongbei Port

2030: finally arrive @ Kee Kwan bus station in Gongbei.
- check-in to the Kee Kwan Hotel for 400RMB/night. That’s only like $60something CDN! But, Aunt told me that’s still expensive though, it’s usu. cheaper, but they just jacked the price b/c of the Chinese NY season. O_o
- still, it’s a huge ass unit: 3 beds, TV, full bath, separate living room w/ ANOTHER TV & couches, crazy…
- after settling in, head off to the main market, to walk around/shop/eat. It’s underground. Literally.

1200: back to the hotel, crash.


End of Day X
(Full Album)